Woman delivers baby on train, an MBBS student helps her with the help of whats app

A 24-year-old final year MBBS student helped a woman give birth to a baby boy on-board the Ahmedabad-Puri Express with instructions from his seniors through WhatsApp.

Vipin Khadse, who is in his final stage of MBBS training (and is not a qualified doctor yet) at the Nagpur-based Government Medical College & Hospital, performed a complicated delivery when 24-year old Chitralekha went into labour on the train on Friday.

Khadse told TOI that the train was about 30km from Nagpur when Chitralekha’s relatives pulled the chain to halt the train near Wardha junction. “The ticket collector and guard were looking for a doctor on the train. Initially, I kept quiet presuming there could be some experienced doctor. But, when they came for a second round of inquiry, I offered to help,” he said.

Chitralekha and her husband had boarded the train at Ahmedabad, where they work as labourers. They were heading to Raipur in Chhattisgarh. When Khadse went to attend her, she was bleeding profusely and was in great pain. In a show of humanity, passengers vacated the compartment. The women passengers helped convert the compartment into a makeshift delivery room.
“The delivery was complicated because instead of the head, the baby’s shoulder was hanging out of the vagina. I uploaded a photo in a WhatsApp group of doctors for help. A senior resident Shikha Malik guided me on the phone to conduct the delivery,” Khadse said. “I had to use chilled water bottles to stop her bleeding. The amniotic fluid had completely dried. A midwife on the train helped me,” Khadse, who aspires to be a surgeon said, adding that every doctor should know how to help a woman in labour.

As the train chugged into Nagpur station, a team led by a woman doctor from the railway hospital took charge of the situation. The new parents were allowed to continue their travel with medication.